- Nowadays, the most important things I look
for in my costumes is,
do I look young,
do I look thin?
[jazzy music]
- Hey Vogue, it's me, Fran Dresher.
And today I'm going to be looking at my life in looks.
- So, this is from 1993, it was worn in
the pilot of The Nanny, and this, I think,
is the definitive nanny-looking costume.
This is what kind of created
the style of the flashy girl from Flushing.
Definitely sexy but not trashy,
and it had to have a sweetness to it
because she was a nanny, always with a little zhuzh.
We would change buttons, we would put
on different trims, sometimes,
we would definitely shorten the skirts, sometimes.
Just kind of like a 1990s version
of Mary Poppins a la Fran Dresher.
Even when I was young, I think I always had
a sense of style.
I responded to women in film
like Audrey Hepburn,
Catherine Deneuve, and Lucille Ball had
a sophisticated sense of style
in spite of the fact that she was a clown.
I remember I came down the stairs wearing
a white beaded Bob Mackie gown with my hair up,
looking and feeling like a Jewish Audrey Hepburn.
That was the Barbra Streisand episode.
This is 1996, season 3, A Pup in Paris.
I was so thin then, I've never been so thin since.
And the suit that I'm wearing is
a Ralph Lauren orange leather suit.
Well, this episode, Mr Sheffield took
the wrong bag to go to Paris.
So I finagled my way onto the plane.
I wore a few things in that episode,
I wore Chanel in that episode, Ralph Lauren.
We came back on the plane and there was so much turbulence,
that he decided to tell me that he loved me.
- I love you.
[audience cheering]
- And then for the whole fourth season, he took it back.
This is 1996 Golden Globes,
famous for the hair
that was built out of real flowers
and I believe I'm wearing an Herve Leger in this,
I think.
They built a cage on my head that was made out
of chicken wire and then they planted in all
the flowers to make this huge thing.
And we were only worried that
the flowers were going to wilt.
But by divine intervention, it was drizzling all night.
So the flowers kept getting watered on my head.
This is the 1996 Emmy Awards.
Again, I'm wearing an Herve Leger.
We wanted to go for a more architectural, mod look.
And the thing that we liked about it was that it
really held you in and gave you a beautiful shape.
You know they were like bands of rubbery,
stretchy material that fit very tightly.
It was very low, you could see just a little bit
of back cleavage.
And that's okay with me.
This is, I wore a of Moschino.
The think that we loved about Moschino,
that seemed so perfect for this series, is
that it had pizazz,
it also had humor,
that was Brenda Cooper's genius, I think.
We created a look
that actually was something
that people responded to very favorably.
I just gotta see my
dog has...
Oh I see, okay, she's got a toy in her mouth,
I thought what the hell does she have in her mouth?
This was 1997, and I'm wearing a Versace,
and as you could see, I'm with the amazing Bette Midler
who was the guest star of this episode.
- This is a professional child care giver for one day
and let's start the bidding at
twenty bucks.
- We had a great chemistry.
Back in the day I always said that I was born
to wear a sarong, the color was great, the look was great,
the style was great, I was just right up my alley.
I felt really beautiful in it.
There was a scene I remember vividly,
I was wearing this Moschino suit
that had this keyboard print,
a piano keyboard, pleated mini skirt.
I can't even imagine, I think that
that whole suit would probably fit me
on my left elbow right now.
We had some incredible talent.
We had Elton John, it took me two years to get him
but I got him.
We had Elizabeth Taylor on the show,
and she couldn't have been lovlier.
Celine Dion actually did the show, too.
She was on The Nanny.
I was wearing a Moschino British flag suit.
So this is a Courreges
green pleather skirt suit,
look how cute that is.
Courreges was a big designer in the sixties during
the Mod era, was having a little bit
of a comeback in the nineties.
I think that they wanted Fran Fine and CC Babcock
to always be contrasting in every way,
as people and in the way that they dressed.
[dog barking]
- What is it, angel?
[dog barking]
- Oh, I gotta be careful not to get lipstick on you.
Mama loves you.
Yes and you're a good girl.
This is 1997,
I hosted the Vh1 Honors,
and I'm wearing Missoni.
I was very excited to do that
'cause I absolutely love music.
You know, my thing was I kinda changed
every time I came out.
So this this an Herve Leger, we had changed my hair,
so I'd thrown on that wig to give it a whole different look.
This is 1997, this is The Kids Choice Awards
and I'm wearing a Moschino.
I absolutely loved this, I felt great in it,
I thought it was just perfect for the event
and luckily I didn't get slimed.
[laughing]
- I think I actually may still have that dress.
It's just a spectacular dress, I wouldn't wear it to
a major event now, but I would wear it
on vacation, with a pair of flip flops.
This is 1999 at the James Bond premier
of The World is not Enough, and as you could see,
I'm kinda rocking more of a motorcycle mama look.
By that point the show was winding up
and I just wanted to express me.
I was all about trying to discover who I was and not being,
you know, who Peter thought I should look like
on a runway or a red carpet.
I was a little bit rebellious trying
to express myself, who I was.
My parents, one minute.
- [Producer] Okay. - Mom?
[electronic interference]
- Mom?
Mom?
- Yes, darling.
- All right, can I call you back because I'm doing
a little on camera interview for Vogue,
for their website.
- Okay, okay, talk to you later.
This is 2013 at Cyndi Lauper's 30th anniversary performance.
And as you can see, I'm wearing something
that I actually wore on The Nanny in 1997.
It was much smaller, here, on me.
But I was still able to wear it 'cause it was stretchy.
You know there's something about stretch fabric
that allows you to keep things way past
your size
or at least the size that I was
when I first wore it on The Nanny.
But it still kind of fit and closed.
This is 2014,
it's at the Tony Awards.
What I'm wearing is a custom made Mark Zunino dress.
I was absolutely, completely
sewn into it.
It was so skintight, I couldn't even go to the bathroom.
And, Peter, my assistant, had to
rip open the dress for me just so
that I could go to the bathroom.
Peter Marc Jacobson, is my gay ex-husband,
and we are still very close, we love each other,
we're soulmates and we talk all the time
and we take vacations together
and we're still writing and producing partners.
And this is probably why we're both still single.
So this is me as I'm making my entrance
on the Seth Myers show.
I'm wearing a Norma Kamali, and I'm there
to promote my new television series on NBC called Indebted.
I thought if I'm gonna play a grandma,
she better be a hottie.
I wasn't interested in the part if they were going
to imagine the character being dowdy,
you know, there's plenty of character actresses
to do that, you don't need Fran Drescher to do that.
I think that it's just fun sharing the stories
of what the photos themselves remind me of.
Thank you, Vogue, thank you all so much for watching,
I had so much fun looking through some of my looks
from days gone by
and I look forward to seeing you again.
And let's keep on watching and having fun
and dressing well.
[jazzy music]